Barack Obama’s near landslide victory over John McCain last week was impressive on a number of dimensions. Most obviously, Obama picked up 9 states that went Republican in the 2004 election: Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, and Virginia.

Less evident, but equally impressive, is that Obama improved on John Kerry’s margin of victory (or defeat) in 46 of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia. The five states in which Obama lost ground for the Democrats from 2004 are Arkansas (-9.78 points), Louisiana (-4.19), Tennessee (-0.90), West Virginia (-0.24), and Oklahoma (-0.15).

Interestingly, Hillary Clinton carried 4 of those 5 states during the Democratic primary, as well as 7 of the 9 states in which Obama had the least impressive movement from the 2004 election: Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Massachusetts (+0.54), Arizona (+1.87), and Kentucky (+3.63) (Obama won Louisiana and Alaska (+0.43)). While Obama was never expected to carry any of those states in the general election, save Massachusetts, it is possible that the selection of Sarah Palin, despite the beating she took in the national press, solidified support for McCain (or opposition to Obama) among Hillary Clinton voters in some of those states.

Still, Obama registered double-digit improvements over John Kerry’s margin of victory or loss in 24 states in 2008 – including 14 states that were won by George W. Bush in 2004: Indiana (+21.64), North Dakota (+18.68), Montana (+18.01), Nebraska (+17.18), Utah (+16.82), New Mexico (+15.39), Nevada (+15.01), Virginia (+14.35), South Dakota (+13.06), North Carolina (+12.75), Idaho (+12.64), Colorado (+11.42), Georgia (+11.34), and Texas (+11.11).

As the preceding data suggests, Obama’s 50-state strategy paid off much more in the West, where his average gain from 2004 was 11.3 points (excluding Hawaii), compared to just 4.1 points in the South – despite picking up Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida for the Democrats.

Collin Peterson remarked last month that he is leaning to run for reelection to Minnesota's 7th Congressional District in 2016. If he does and is victorious, he will creep even closer to the top of the list of the longest-serving U.S. Representatives in Minnesota history. The DFL congressman is only the sixth Minnesotan to win at least 13 terms to the U.S. House of the 135 elected to the chamber in state history. Peterson trails 18-term DFLer Jim Oberstar (1975-2011), 16-term Republicans Harold Knutson (1917-1949) and August Andresen (1925-1933; 1935-1958), and 14-term DFLers Martin Sabo (1979-2007) and John Blatnik (1947-1974). Andresen died in office, Sabo and Blatnik retired, and Knutson and Oberstar were defeated at the ballot box in 1948 and 2010 respectively. At 70 years, 7 months, 11 days through Monday, Peterson is currently the ninth oldest Gopher State U.S. Representative in history. DFLer Rick Nolan of the 8th CD is the seventh oldest at 71 years, 1 month, 23 days.

Congressman Nick Rahall's failed bid for a 20th term in West Virginia this cycle, combined with a narrow loss by Nick Casey to Alex Mooney in Shelley Moore Capito's open seat, means that West Virginia Democrats will be shut out of the state's U.S. House delegation for the first time in over 90 years. The Republican sweep by two-term incumbent David McKinley in the 1st CD, Mooney in the 2nd, and Evan Jenkins over Rahall in the 3rd marks the first time the GOP has held all seats in the chamber from West Virginia since the Election of 1920. During the 67th Congress (1921-1923) all six seats from the state were controlled by the GOP. Since the Election of 1922, Democrats have won 76 percent of all U.S. House elections in the Mountain State - capturing 172 seats compared to 54 for the GOP.